The present invention relates generally to a machine for sharpening a point on wooden stakes, and, more particularly, to an apparatus that receives a supply of unsharpened wooden stakes and automatically forms a sharpened point thereon.
Wooden stakes are driven into the ground for a plurality of purposes, including fencing support, agricultural crop support, and survey and grade markers in construction. The stakes are formed on a cutting machine that forms the wooden stake in the required dimensions, whereupon the formed wooden blank is then transferred to another machine to form a point at one end to facilitate the driving of the stake into the ground. A number of different machines have been devised to form the sharpened point. Such machines are typically configured to move the wooden stake blank into the path of a cutting or chipping device that cuts away the wood along an angular path to form the customary point.
Such machines can be manually operated, as can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,971, issued to Elbert Spencer on Nov. 26, 1963, in which a post blank can be inserted into a receiving tube into engagement with an angularly oriented chipping head that cuts away the wooden material at the end of the post to create a point thereon. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,896, issued to Christopher Tomes on May 5, 1992, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,877, granted to Norman Apr. on Jun. 17, 1997, the wooden stake blank is manually inserted against a guide fence or tube into engagement with a chipping head to form the sharpened point, wherein the guide fence or tube is positioned at an angular orientation to the chipping head.
Wooden posts are also presented to machines to affect the sharpening of an end thereof, as can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,362, granted to Simon Bourdon on Jan. 15, 1963, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,710, granted to Richard Garrison on Oct. 1, 1968, in which the wooden post blank is manually presented into a conical chipping head to remove the wooden material at one end of the wooden post blank to form a point thereon. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,449, issued to Harold Bouma on Jun. 24, 1969, the wooden post blank is reciprocally moved into engagement with a conical cutterhead at each respective end of the machine to form a point and a cap at the opposite ends of the wooden post. Similarly, the machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,751, granted to Charles Carter on Jun. 14, 1983, forms a point of wooden pickets by moving the picket blank into engagement with an abrading apparatus to remove the material at the end of the wooden picket blank.
The stake point machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,325, granted to Elmer Mood on Jun. 22, 1965, operates a little differently in that the wooden stake blanks are aligned on a horizontal conveyor and clamped into a fixed position while a shearing head moves vertically into engagement with the wooden stake blank to sever wooden material away from the stake blank to form the point. The shearing head moves in conjunction with a V-shaped striker to affect the shearing of the material away from the stake blank. The conveyor advances sequentially to move the stake blanks into alignment with the striker member to be sheared into a point.
Presently commercially available stake pointing machine operate on a reciprocal basis to move a wooden stake blank into engagement with a cutting or chipping apparatus to form the point at the end of the stake. As can be seen in the know prior art references described above, the stakes can be manually handled to affect the sharpening process or in an automated manner in which the stake is clamped or fixed against a support and then moved into engagement with the cutting or chipping apparatus.
Such complex reciprocation equipment for the stake requires frames, clamping supports and linear actuators to affect the reciprocal movement of the stakes. It would be desirable to provide a less complex and less expensive stake pointing apparatus for use in industry to provide mass quantities of sharpened wooden stakes in an automated fashion.